Sole and heel



April 207, 26.

fly a? Patented Apr. 20, 1926.

PATENT OFFICE.

DONALD OBEBDORFEB, OF ATLANTA, GEORGIA SOLE AND HEEL.

Application filed December 17,1921. Serial Io. 758,568.

T all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, DONALD OBERDORFEB, citizen of the United States, residing at Atlanta, in the county of Fulton and State of Georgia, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Soles and Heels, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to improvements in footwear, and is more particularly directed to an improvement in the heels and soles thereof, whereby said portions will be caused to wear approximately evenly or uniformly throu hout their ground-contacting surface, and has avoid the run-down appearance of such portions due to uneven wear, and to increase the length of wear thereof, thus reduciu the expense incident to their renewal. A further object of my invention is to reduce the cost of .such sole and heels by the saving of material in their manufacture. A further object of my invention is the provision of a ground-contacting surface which may be employed in the correction of orthopedic conditions. I 1 In the accompanying drawing illustrating the prefered embodiment of my invention:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view ofthe heelcarrying portion of a shoe, with a heel there- Fig. 2 is a section on irregular line 2 of Fig. 1;

' Fig. 3 a bottom plan view of the face or ground-contacting surface of a heel;

Fig. 4 a sectional view on line 4-4 of Fig. 3;

Fig. 5 a section similar to that shown in Fig. 4, with the heel inverted;

Fig. 6 a bottom plan view of a shoe sole constructed in accordance with my invention. 4

Corresponding numerals; indicate like parts in the several figures.

7 indicates a: shoe heel formed from leather, rubber or composit material, and

provided with recesses 8, which may be of any form for mechanical efi'ect produced.

The recesses 8 are formed at the side of the sole or heel opposite to that at which the greater wear usually occurs, whereby such apertured portion of the ground-contacting 60 surface is caused to be weakened or pre-worn, due to the elimination of a portion of the material at such point, whereby the reduced area in which such recesses are made having less resistance will wear approximately evenly with the opposite unimpaired area, which is subjected to the greater proportion of the wearing weight, thereby insuring an approximately even wear of all of the sole or heel, and avoiding any inclined or run-down condition.

Other modifications may be made in the physical embodiment of the invention without departing from the spirit thereof.

I claim:

As a new article of manufacture, a groundcontacting member for footwear, having its ground-contacting surface formed of material of uniform hardness throughout substantially normal and unimpaired in its area 7 of greatest normal wear, and in the area opposite to that first-mentioned being provided with a multiplicity of small recesses of substantially uniform depth throughout and disposed in relatively close relation.

DONALD OBERDORFER. 

